


The Elephant

by theescapist99



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Established Relationship, Happy Ending, Just a short Story, M/M, but could be interpreted as platonic, depending on how you want to look at it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 05:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11155389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theescapist99/pseuds/theescapist99
Summary: When Credence becomes ill from the obscurus, Percival makes a deal with the devil to save his young friends life.There's this thing about clocks, unfortunately.You can turn one back all you want.... but time, like recompense, is inevitable.





	The Elephant

The child was dying.

It was the promise Gellert Grindelwald had made to Credence Barebone while under the guise of Percival Graves. At the time, of course, unknowing that Credence _was_ the child.

Of all the lies Gellert Grindelwald had spun in his wretched lifetime -- why did this have to be the one true statement?

The child was dying.

 _Is_ dying.

Credence knew it almost as soon as the process began, before symptoms could manifest.

He could feel something in him weaken gradually, even if he couldn’t place exactly what.

And then the black outs.

And then the tremors.

And then the concerned face of Percival Graves – his housemate and only friend – hovering over his vision as Credence woke from delirious episodes and seizures that he could not remember.

“Could it be an illness? We should get you seen by a doctor,” Percival had once suggested, but Credence had only shrugged.

They both knew it was wishful thinking.

No matter how long they had managed to ignore the elephant in the room --- the pitch black, translucent, _violent_ elephant that stuck to the walls like unnatural smoke --- neither man had ever really forgotten about it.

Perhaps there was the occasional hope or silly illusion that maybe it would just disappear.

Or maybe that Percival’s attempted lessons in magic might have been enough to control it.

…but no matter what desperate delusions they may have had, the elephant remained.

It’s gigantic trunk swaying back and forth like a clock pendulum.

_Tick-tock._

_The grim reaper will soon come to knock._

And then one morning – after Credence had fallen asleep with all the pains of a human body on the brink of expiration – the young man woke rejuvenated.

His entire body felt renewed, as though someone had somehow removed his soul and then placed it back into a brand-new body that looked exactly like his former one.  

“Percival!” he exclaimed immediately, jumping from his bed.

Credence ran downstairs to find Percival eating breakfast at the kitchen table.

He looked tired.

Weary.

Yet after weeks of bracing himself for an abrupt arrival at the gates of hell… Credence did not have much of a chance to notice.

“I feel amazing!” Credence told the older man with excitement, a rare ear-to-ear grin spreading on his face.

Percival seemed equally uplifted by the news, smiling widely as he stood to pull Credence into a tight hug.

Softly… almost under his breath… Percival murmured.

“I’m _so_ glad, my boy.”

And the genuine relief and pure love that reverberated from the short sentence brought Credence to tears. And for the first time in months -- his body found the energy to cry.

Credence wept into Percival’s shoulder, and Percival just continued to hold him there – silent and still like the anchoring weight he now lived to be for the younger man.

* * *

 

­­­­­­­­­­­

The next day, there was massacre in Europe.

Estimated 300 dead and counting.

Gellert Grindelwald had broken out… somehow.

 _Somehow_ … Grindelwald had regained his wand.

 _Somehow_ … Grindelwald had all this money.

 _Somehow_ … he walked right out of MACUSA’s highest security cells.

 _Somehow_ …. Gellert Grindelwald seemed to possess some new, wandless kind of dark magic that allowed him to kill mobs of people with a casual wave of his hand.  

Percival’s eyes scanned the paper for any mention of his own name. Although the newspaper seemed to cover no other subjects, the director found nothing that could be traced back to him.

The door to the bedroom opened, and Percival quickly slid the newspaper underneath the bed on which he lay. Through the top of his reading glasses, he peered up at Credence.

The boy was _gorgeous_ in good health.

He looked like someone who had never met a Mary Lou Barebone --- who covered his body with scars.

Credence finally looked like someone who had _not_ gone through a lifetime of endless abuse and betrayal.

“Hello, Percival,” Credence greeted merrily, “I brought you cookies!”

Credence held out a white paper bag, and the scent of fresh baked white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies wafted from its open mouth.

Credence knew that Percival hated sweets and baked goods… except for _those_.

Percival had a weak spot for the cookies that Mrs. Vincent baked in her small little bakery on fourth street, and Credence liked to tease him by saying he knew his “dirty secret”.

The director supposed that might be ironic, now.

Still, in the presence of Credence and Mrs.Vincent’s cookies, the headlines he had been reading all morning were pushed a _little_ farther back into the corners of his mind.

Percival took the bag of cookies gladly, pulling one out for himself right away and then offering one to Credence.

“No thanks,” Credence declined, “I’m still stuffed from lunch. It’s so weird…. A week ago I couldn’t eat a slice of bread without vomiting, but today I was able to devour an entire French dip sandwich. I still wonder what happened…I mean, is this permanent? Could it really be gone?”

Percival took a bite of the cookie in his hand -- and the baked good tasted a little odd as it mingled with the flavors of deception and lies that already lined the insides of his mouth.

“Who knows?” the older man shrugged, “I think we should just enjoy it while we can.”

But Percival _did_ know… he knew full well.

He _knew_ from his captivity with Grindelwald that the dark wizard had been working on potential ways to transfer an obscurus from one host to another.

As Percival had watched Credence fall into an uneasy sleep two nights earlier – as he observed the fearful look in Credence’s eyes before he closed them shut – he also knew he had to try _everything_ to save the boy.

Even if that meant breaking his own laws.

Even if that meant risking career.

Even if that meant helping his enemy.

 _Even_ when it meant selling your soul to the devil.

300 dead and counting -- the headlines had said.

Yet as Percival felt the mattress sink under the weight of Credence sitting down next to him – as he listened to the boy continue to talk about his day without a cough nor a break in his voice – he tried to put those thoughts aside.

For now, all that mattered was that Credence was happy, healthy, and well fed.

All that mattered was that they were together -- and that Percival had bought them more time to be together.

 _More time_ , the elephant sneered from the corner.

That elephant who was now invisible to Credence at least… but somehow larger to Percival.

The elephant who no longer looked like obscurus smoke… but rather Gellert Grindelwald in the half solid form Percival last saw him in, as he grinned a sinister smile and said, “My thanks, Graves.”

That elephant who looked like **300 dead and counting**.

 _More time was not eternity_ , that elephant reminded him.

More time was longer --- but not forever.

_Tick-tock._

_The sailboats of your penitence will eventually dock._

“Percival!”

Credence’s hand grabbed onto Percival’s cookie-less one, snapping Percival out of his reverie.

“Huh?” Percival met the boy’s concerned gaze.

“Are you okay?” Credence cocked his head, “I was asking you something and you weren’t answering.”

“I’m fine, Credence,” Percival smiled at the boy gently, “I’m sorry, what was the question?”

“Now that I’m better,” Credence repeated, “Do you think we could go to that place you mentioned? The magical alley in Europe?”

“Diagon Alley, you mean,” Percival mumbled. 

His eyes dropped to his lap as he said, “Maybe we should avoid Europe for a while. Didn’t you hear? Grindelwald broke out.”

Credence gasped, instantly paling.

Percival reached out a placating hand, resting it over Credence’s right cheek. His thumb stroking the smooth skin absent mindedly, Percival promised.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him get to you.”

And he wouldn’t.

Yet despite Percival’s job title… despite the oaths he had made to the protection of the magical community, he now found that could make no such promise to the rest of society.

_As long as Credence is okay…._

_…Right, Percival?_

The elephant swung its trunk.

_Tick._

_Tock._


End file.
